Red October

 

Echinacea

"October is a bonus, as the days can be warm and the sun hazy.  It is important to have late flowers to sustain the bees for as long as possible, so keep the garden going.

The preponderance of golden-yellows gives any rich, dark-red flowers an ornate presence, like garnets in an old gold Victorian ring."

Val Bourne writes about October in 'The Ten-Minute Gardener's Flower Growing Diary.'

A couple of poems from my favourite rural writers -

In thy dull days of clouds a pleasure comes,

Wild music softens in thy hollow winds,

And in thy fading woods a beauty blooms

That's more than dear to melancholy minds.

from 'To Autumn' by John Clare

Digging

Today I think

Only with scents, - scents dead leaves yield,

And bracken, and wild carrot's seed,

And the square mustard field;

Odours that rise

When the spade wounds the root of tree,

Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed,

Rhubarb or celery;

The smoke's smell too,

Flowing from where a bonfire burns

The dead, the waste, the dangerous,

And all to sweetness turns.

It is enough

To smell, to crumble the dark earth.

While the robin sings over again

Sad songs of Autumn mirth.

Edward Thomas

While the sun shone this weekend I have been doing plenty of digging.  And dividing, moving, weeding, mulching and admiring. Taking short coffee and radio breaks, then back to it.  This is me being occupied, useful, happy.

I was struck by how much red there was in the garden ,sadly a distinct lack of berries which I hope to put right for next year. 

Here's what's 'red hot' right now...

'Spartan' blueberry

the strawberry leaves

Acer

fallen Acer leaves

Dogwood

'Littleton Red' chrysanthemum

cut chrysanths and viburnum indoors

I'll end with some words from Wassily Kandinsky on the language of colour... in this instance, red.

"The unbounded warmth of red rings inwardly with a determined and powerful intensity.  It glows in itself, maturely, and does not distribute its vigour aimlessly.

In music, it is a sound of trumpets,strong, harsh and ringing.

Vermillion is a red with a feeling of sharpness, like glowing steel which can be cooled by water."

More from the garden soon :)

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